The Poe Predicament by Phil Thomas

I felt like I was visiting the early 19th century. The setting was very realistic, the research was exceptional. The attention to details of the environment were most interesting to me. The time-travel felt flawless, very believable.

I enjoyed the aspect of an alternate history of Edgar Allen Poe, funny hearing him called Eddie.

But it does have a horror feel to it, the settings and experiences, some of the people were pretty creepy. Getting close to Halloween, it's a scary story to be sure.

I did like his visit from another time-traveler at the end of the story. He met her in another time and then she visited him in this time. Nice finish.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

 

This was a beautiful story. It broke my heart and then healed it again. The sixties brought blacks and whites to the streets, and it was ugly. The historic ugliness in the book is intercepted with a tender love story that ends with a broken heart.  Women grown and still holding onto a piece of the past. But the book ends with hope.

At times I wished the telling of the story would stay in the current era, 2010. The trails down 1965 were brutal at times and I didn’t want to go back there. However, it was necessary. We shouldn’t forget the reality of our history. The story was told well without any extraneous nonsense. This was a serious work about a serious subject.

There were parts that were hard to read, parts I had to skip over. I knew what happened, I was alive in those years I know what the kkk is about. The hard part for many of us is knowing that behind those masks were our relatives, ancestors and neighbors.

Kayla brings healing to the small community many years later. She doesn’t know that’s what she’s doing, by choosing to live in the house she and her husband built. But it was necessary, and her strength was necessary.

It’s a story I won’t soon forget. I’m glad I read it.

I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.